Hungarian Red Lentil Soup, The Vegan 8
Which cooking oil should you choose? There are many oils sold, and some are good for salad dressings, others for cooking – and some people say we should avoid refined oils and just eat whole olives etc. There is evidence that it’s good to eat less oil if you have cancer, diabetes or heart disease. It’s your choice. American chef Bryant Terry says: he likes fat, because it makes food taste good.
How much you use it up to you. You may live longer having no oil, but then you may not wish to! But do keep cold-pressed oils for salad dressings, and avoid deep-fat fryers (fire hazards anyway). A little oil makes life nice, but don’t fall for the myth that ‘olive oil is healthy’, because it’s not. We all need some fats, but you don’t have to live with oil. Years ago, olive oil was only sold at the chemist.
If you prefer to use less oil, some good choices are applesauce, plant-based yoghurt and prune puree (good for chocolate recipes). Brandi has a post on how her cooking/baking without oil helped her husband’s gout. Her book The Vegan 8 is oil-free (like this No-Bake Chocolate Espresso Fudge Cake (Unconventional Baker).
Brandi eats nuts & olives in whole form, and is not a fan of applesauce for baking. She prefers nut butters & almond flour (negates the need for oil). Good cookbooks(keep toxic foods away from pets) are Forks Over Knives Family and China Study Quick & Easy Cookbook.
- Coconut oil (not harvested by monkeys) is not good at high temperatures, and flammable. It contains saturated fat (doctors say bad, raw foodists say lauric acid has benefits). If you use it, use 25% less than recommended butter in recipe. Some palm-oil-free vegan butters are based on coconut oil. Don’t give coconut oil to pets unless a vet says so. It can cause gastric problems in some pets.
- Chip fryer pans cause house fires. Throw them out and use an airfryer, for recipes that taste like fried food.
- Olive oil is fine for salad dressings, but the low smoke-point is not good for high temperatures.
- Flax oil again has essential acids that go rancid for cooking (the same reason why cooked fish is no good for fatty acids). Save flax oil for salad dressings or whizz up for smoothies. Or just grind fresh seeds.
- Sesame oil is popular in Asian and Indian cooking. It’s also good to use as a massage oil (don’t add essential oils if pregnancy or nursing).
Local Rapeseed Oils
Rapeseed oil (called canola oil in the US) is one of the better oils for cooking at higher temperatures, and makes good roast spuds (no goose fat required). England has many brands (those bright yellow fields you see are rapeseed flowers). Many are organic. A few brands are:
- Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil
- Chiltern Cold Pressed
- Cotswold Gold
- Farrington Oils
- Borderfields
- Bath Harvest Oils
- Mr Hugh’s also offers infused oils with lemon, vanilla and hazelnut. So you can use these to replace butter (or coconut oil).
Don’t Pour Fat Down Drains
This is what caused London’s sewer Fatty McFatBerg. Oil won’t break down, so wrap and bin, and use an oil bin for commercial use.
Never give birds leftover foods with fat (oil, buttered sandwiches, roasts etc) as the fat clogs feathers and affects waterproofing and insulation. See how to help our garden birds for more info.
